Published

The 2011 USA Tour: Reloaded.

Well over a year ago I posted an entry about a trip to the US. Me and three other guys were planning the compulsory guys-only road trip through the land of the free and had been doing that on and off for a year and a half when the entry was written. The idea was that we would depart from Norway some time during the autumn of 2011, drive through the western part of the states, down the west coast and return to Norway two weeks later. Unfortunately, everything fell through for various reasons and 2011 came and vent without any of us seeing a single redneck first hand.

But we can’t just buckle under and crawl into the fetal position under a desk because we failed once. Now the planning has started for the 2011 USA Tour: Reloaded.

So, what are four well-set guys going to do in the States for two weeks? I honestly don’t know much about what’s happening in the cities we’ll pass through on our route, but thankfully there are tools that can help us. RoadTrip America has such a tool; a “RoadTrip Map Wizard” that let’s you plot your route and helps you find things to do along the way. What I ended up with after punching in the route was this:

It’s not easy to see from the map, but we’re starting in Salt Lake City, moving on to Elko, then Reno, San Francisco, Santa Maria, Los Angeles and then we finish off in Las Vegas. Of course. What is easy to see is that there isn’t shit to do between Salt Lake City and Reno. But that’s intentional, believe it or not. We wanted to get a glimpse of no-man’s-land-America. U-turn America, if you will. But without all the killing. Still, I’m sure we can find something to do if we befriend some locals. The natives always know best.

The RoadTrip America RoadTrip Map WizardTM mostly came up with things along the route that were more suited for the 60+ versions of us than the 30+ versions we are now. What about the Winchester Mystery House?

Sarah Winchester, heiress of the Winchester Rifle empire, was a very rich woman, and the house she had constructed shows it. She was also a bit eccentric, and after a psychic reputedly informed her that she’d die if construction on the house ever stopped, she took the advice to heart and used her fortune to finance round-the-clock construction beginning in 1884.

I think I’ll pass. The same goes for the Giant Wisteria Vine:

This Wisteria Vine totally covers a large tree and is one of the more amazing sights along this little traveled road in the early spring.

Come on! It’s a vine! After playing around with Google Maps for a while, I discovered that there are plenty of other, and by far more interesting, things to do than go the Winchester Mystery House or look at the Giant Wisteria Vine. Take my search for “Shooting Range near Reno, NV, United States“, for instance. One of the results was Nevada Recreation, whose mascot is a squirrel with a machine gun who is, and I quote, “completely
NUTS about his job”.

An excerpt from Nevada & Local Gun Laws (emphasis is mine):

In Nevada, you may carry a loaded or unloaded firearm on your person without a permit so long as the firearm is fully exposed (known as “open carry”).purse, jacket, etc.) is considered “concealed carry” and is discussed below.

Well, seems like it should be possible for me to get a chance to fire that Dessert Eagle (item #48 on The List).